The Lancashire Group and SNP S6881

Before I went on holiday I posted that I have updated (virtually rewritten) my DNA Commentary on Results including a link to a new paper on the results of The Lancashire Group. Discussions and developments have continued since then.

Firstly to summarise the position, there are 8 members of the Lancashire Group who have taken DNA tests and the results indicate that they share a common ancestor, but he lived before the introduction of surnames. I interpret this to mean that he probably lived in the village of Warburton sometime between its founding in the 10th century, and the general adoption of surnames in the 14th century.

The most recent SNP (mutation) shared by the two Warburton who have taken a full Big Y test is called S6881. This is dated at 753 AD with a 95% probability it falls between 445 AD and 1184 AD. This mutation could conceivably have occurred in the village of Warburton but more likely it occurred earlier and one or more S6881 carriers were amongst the original settlers of the village.

In all 7 BigY testers have S6881, and I believe an eighth will be in the next compilation of results. These are amongst 2 dozen results within the R-U106 project that are either tested or predicted to be S6881, and a further 18 who are possibly S6881. A conversation developed on the R-U106 Project blog which indicated that a number of these had origins in Cheshire, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire. As part of the conversation I stated that my  theory on the origins and dispersion of S6881, based on its dates, the specific Warburton story, and its current spread, is as follows:

The date range for the origin of S6881 is a good match for the period of the Kingdom of Mercia (6th – 10th centuries). At that time the river Mersey was the northern boundary of Mercia, first with Northumbria, and later the Dane Law. Therefore I think the mutation occurred somewhere in Mercia, and carriers were among the settlers who founded the fortified settlement of Werburghstune (later Warburton) in the 10th century on the southern bank of the Mersey. Others may have lived elsewhere in Mercia.

Subsequently with the establishment of England (when Wessex absorbed Mercia and pushed back the Danes) S6881 was able to spread north into Lancashire and across into Yorkshire. This migration could have begun long before surnames were common and continued for 1000 years. The spread will have continued right through the industrial revolution and the move from the countryside into towns.

Information may come to light in the future to prove me wrong but that is my theory for now.

One issue with the Warburton results was that one, from the Edenfield clan, was genetically a little more remote from the others, and based on only 12 STR markers, plus Z343 SNP test. Z343 dates to around 200 BC. I took the opportunity of the April sale at FTDNA to order a Z8 SNP pack test on this sample as it includes a test of S6881, and sure enough the result came back positive for S6881.

The next step is to break down the S6881 subclade in more detail in a haplotree (sometimes called a phylogenetic tree). I did one for the seven Big Y results and included it in The Lancashire Group. The Big Y results identified the locations of a number of mutations below S6881 that divided up the subclade. YSEQ is a company which offers to establish tests for specific locations and groups of locations vis its “Wish a SNP’ and “Wish a Panel” service. I have ordered ‘Wish a SNP’ for five locations below S6881, and “Wish a Panel’, for an S6881 Panel which includes S6881 itself, my five wished SNPs and one other testable SNP below S6881. When this panel becomes available we should be able to position results within the S6881 subclade more cheaply that through the expensive Big Y test. I will plan to use it on the Edenfield result, but the results of the other members of the Lancashire Group are probably close enough for  to make this unnecessary.